Monday Bulletin: Bar Valette and Regenuary

Catch up on the latest industry news stories of the week from the CODE Bulletin

Bar Valette

Next up with a new casual high-end concept is the Clove Club’s Isaac McHale, who will open Bar Valette in Shoreditch in mid-January. A la carte rather than tasting menu-led, the restaurant will take its cues from the food of coastal France and Spain and the Scottish chef promised ‘considered yet informal’ cooking in a restaurant designed for ‘interminable dinners fuelled by wine and sherry… where comfort is king’. Leading the kitchen will be Erin Jackson Yates, one of many Clove Club alumni, while Wilem Powell will run the restaurant floor and wine list, which will be largely European. ‘Bar Valette is inspired by a simple love of Spanish cooking, with French influences,’ said McHale. ‘It will be about amazing seafood and game, meat and dairy. We’ll be using the same producers as we do at the Clove Club.’ On the way are bar snacks such as devilled crab tartlets, grouse sausage rolls and buttermilk fried chicken in homage to McHale’s lauded fine dining restaurant, now 11 years old. Small plates will punctuate sharing dishes, with pork chops, steaks, grilled trout and whole lobsters the focus.

Regenuary

The Regenuary movement started gaining traction a few years after it was founded as a social media campaign in response to Veganuary. Each year, founder Farhad Kazemian (best known as the Ethical Butcher) seeks to champion the responsible and sustainable consumption of meat, namely that which has been produced on regenerative farms. Hundreds of farmers, chefs and food suppliers are on board and next year could be the biggest yet. On January 22, Fortnum & Mason will host a panel talk on the subject, with Kazemian joined by Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers and Courteenhall farmer Johnny Wake to discuss how regenerative agriculture can go mainstream and shift from restaurant trend to fully scaled operation. Kazemian wants the same level of public interest in farming as in chefs 20 years ago, when the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White changed the game. Tickets (£35) here.

Small Plates

• The Dusty Knuckle will open on Christmas Day again this year, at its Dalston branch between 10am and 1pm, for those who might otherwise be spending the day alone. Tea, coffee, and pastries will be served free of charge, with the heating on and tunes playing. As if there was any more reason to go in for a sandwich in the New Year.
   
• Former Amethyst chef Carlo Scotto is to return to the UK restaurant scene in spring 2025. He’s been named as chef patron at the new restaurant at the Crazy Bear hotel in Beaconsfield, where he will oversee a tasting menu focusing on foraged ingredients and seasonal veg.
   
• The team behind the excellent cocktail bar Discount Suit Company has taken over the former Nest nightclub in Dalston. Called Parasol, it will be about classic cocktails and modern creations, DJs, and a changing food menu put on by high-end grocer Provisions. The whole thing is inspired by ‘1980s NYC-style mutant disco’.
   
• England’s oldest commercial vineyard, Hambledon Wine Estate in Hampshire, will launch a new restaurant in early 2025. The 40-cover concept is to be led by former Le Manoir chef Nick Edgar. Dishes will include trout with beetroot, grilled mackerel, and roasted loin of local venison with celeriac, pear and juniper.
  

• The group behind Le Bab has teamed up with music venue Tape London to launch a new pub in Camden called the Dark Horse. Described as a ‘no nonsense, music-listening pub’, there will be local beers, affordable wines, and pies, fish and chips, bangers and mash and prawn cocktails.
   

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